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How Can God Heal My Wounds?

Sometimes we feel powerless to do what we want to do? Sometimes it’s deeper or sometimes it’s physical limitation where we feel powerless. Maybe there’s an habitual sin where we feel so weak and powerless. We think, “if only God will take this thing (insert obstacle) away, then I’ll have freedom.” Freedom is, in reality, the power to do what we ought to do. We are given this freedom in living in Christ. Jesus does give us the power to be healed and live life to the full. He can heal us through our wounds.

St. Catherine of Siena, a doctor of the Church, died when she was 33 years old. She lived intense penances, brought the Pope back from Avignon to Rome, and she lived on the Eucharist for long stretches. Some people marked St. Catherine as someone with eating disorders or even a mental illness! If this was the case, that changes nothing about her sanctity. She loved God, brought many sinners in contact with the healing power of Christ. She loved and nursed the plague victims of Siena with greater attention. She was so attractive in the Holy Spirit that even her own mother became a close follower of her way of life. Even if she had illnesses of the sort mentioned, then still more it shows that in the midst of her own difficulties God delivers her through them into the freedom He granted her in his grace (i.e. His strength).

St. Paul said, “…He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”(2 Cor 12:9-10) In the midst of your wounds, he will save you. Our wounds are often the access points where God can meet us and reach into our hearts. He wants our hearts more than he wants our healing. Of course he wants both. But let us give him our hearts and show him our wounds. Amazing things can happen if we do this. If we don’t, then nothing will happen.